Portugal: Day One – Slater and Medina Advance to Tighten the Title Race

Forget what you know about the modern World Championship Tour for a moment and picture this: an international surf contest with no bracket formats, no elimination rounds, no priority rules, and no big prize purse—just 24 surfers thrown into a single heat to scramble for scores.

Heading into a tightening world title race, the pressure was on Gabriel Medina to hold his lead over Kelly Slater, who realistically needs to win this event to push the title race to Pipeline.

For his part, Medina put on a dominant performance in his opening heat today over wildcard Jacob Willcox and past event winner Kai Otton by posting a clean 7-point tube ride and backing it up with another 7.

In his heat against Matt Wilkinson and wildcard Nic Von Rupp, Slater found himself with his back against the wall after Wilko dropped a 9. 57 tube ride in the opening minute of the heat.

Following his Round 1 win, Slater weighed in on title race frontrunner Gabriel Medina. “He’s hyper-competitive and he wants to win more than anybody else, just like I did when I was his age.

According to the Pyongyang Times, North Korea’s tourism authorities are offering surf tours to international guests during “this present bathing season. ” The first tours ran from July 28th through August 6th.

In his post-heat interview, Medina commented on the pressure he’s facing for the title race. “It’s not pressure, it’s motivating me.